'Crafty' Bengals TE keeps earning Joe Burrow's trust with Travis Kelce style of play

I can just hear the mass choir of Chiefs fandom and Swifties screaming at me for invoking Travis Kelce's name, but bear with me here. The Cincinnati Bengals are really the only team that's been able to mess with Kansas City's dynastic reign over the AFC in recent years. Their body of work is undeniable.

My aim here isn't to try to compare Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki to a living legend like Kelce. It's a mere comment on the Kelce-esque style Gesicki has adopted as he's developed his chemistry with Joe Burrow.

We good, Chiefs Kingdom? No? That's what I thought. I tried to be reasonable. Without further ado, though, this is some fun stuff to dig into for us Cincinnati stans.

Mike Gesicki adopts Travis Kelce-style approach to passing game

Natch, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins rightfully made all the headlines by signing big second contracts this offseason — albeit a full year later than Chase should have, and a full two years after Higgins was eligible for an extension.

But I digress. Burrow was keen to keep Gesicki in the fold once he hit free agency because of the unique pass-catching element he brings to the tight end position. It turns out that Gesicki has a little more to his game than meets the eye, though.

The Bengals' clear WR3, Andrei Iosivas, is a dynamic weapon in his own right, yet he often ceded a big share of his prospective production to Gesicki and his 65 receptions on 83 targets in 2024. Why is that?

Connecting with Burrow on 78.3% of his chances is a testament to Gesicki's sure hands and plus ball skills. However, the similarities to Kelce are the secret sauce to what made Gesicki an indispensable weapon to Cincinnati's passing attack. Iosivas explained this phenomenon to The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr. in a recent feature on the Bengals' multifaceted tight end room:

"If you watch Mike, a lot of his routes are feel-the-zone routes...He’ll kind of change his route. We give him a lot of freedom in the offense just because he is so crafty, and he knows where the other guys are in the route concepts. He does a lot of his own stuff. Everyone in the room is learning from him and how he does that kind of stuff. Obviously, not everyone has the freedom he has, but he’s the best in the league at that, for sure."

Kelce's uncanny ESP-type bond with his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, has a lot to do with their shared ability to read defensive coverages and adjust routes accordingly.

You've probably heard a lot about how smart of a route-runner Travis Kelce is and how connected he is with his QB. but what does that look like?

Generally, it involves them both seeing the same thing and knowing the other well enough to trust they'll see it too. pic.twitter.com/b6eteJokwz
— Max Toscano (@maxtoscano1) June 25, 2025

Although I fancy myself a rather knowledgable fellow when it comes to gridiron schematics, until Iosivas' beaming endorsement of Gesicki, I didn't realize just how high the latter's football IQ was.

Just like Kelce does with Mahomes, Gesicki has an innate-but-learned knack for adjusting his routes to find the soft spot in zones, and he can make big splash plays on scramble drills when Burrow breaks the pocket to make off-schedule throws. See: this 3rd-and-22 conversion from last season.

Joe Burrow superhero mode on 3rd and 22.

Escapes a sack from a free runner at the top of his drop and then rolls right to extend the play. Gains depth so there's room to get the end blocked on that side. Then hits Gesicki as he works up the field. pic.twitter.com/0X8GliY5hK
— mike (@bengals_sans) October 29, 2024

I can't go as far as Iosivas to say that Gesicki does a superior job to Kelce in this particular department, because frankly, Kelce has done it for longer. At a higher level. On the biggest stages. He and Mahomes have driven the Chiefs to three Super Bowl victories.

Not every tight end has the skill set to even come close to emulating Kelce's seemingly one-of-one, freelance style of route-running. I had not the slightest clue that perhaps the closest player to replicating that brand of football was none other than the Bengals' Mike Gesicki.

If the continuity of playing in the same system with Burrow for another year means there's more for Gesicki to unlock in Cincinnati, that's going to make the Bengals' offense even more dangerous. What a scary proposition for the rest of the NFL, especially as Kelce nears the tail end of his career and people begin to question whether the Chiefs' dynasty is, if not winding down, at least evolving into a new era that will soon no longer include Kelce's exotic talents.

Alright, Chiefs folk. Do your worst and yell at me to tell me how wrong I am. Or try not to stone the messenger to the point of fatality. Just don't be surprised if you see Gesicki playing fast-and-loose with route concepts, only to yield a massive, clutch touchdown in the playoffs when the Bengals need it the most! How about a little taste of your own medicine, Kansas City!?

All that I ask of Big Mike is that he links up with Ja'Marr to keep working on that griddy celebration. Could still use a little fine-tuning.

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